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A Note On Gardening From A Novice…

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a complete gardening newbie and how we’ve lived in rented apartments (no garden) and a house (it had a garden but my gardening got as far as mowing the lawn, which Jordan actually did most of the time) so since we bought this house gardening has been a brand new project for me. I’ve been genuinely interested in it too! Although I must say that I’m much more of a herb and a plant girl, yes flowers are pretty but I guess I’m worried about them being too high maintenance. That said, I don’t really know a great deal about gardening and more research is definitely needed, but this is what I’ve discovered for myself so far…

Spring onions are easy: These are my new favourite vegetable and I’m not sure whether it’s the fact that I’ve got an abundant supply growing on the decking and the thought of eating homegrown vegetables is much too appealing, but they’re so easy to grow and seem to do so at great speed. You can even regrow them from the Spring Onions you buy in the supermarket! Easy peasy!

Herbs are a mixed bag: Whilst I’ve found Rosemary and Mint to be extremely hardy and easy to keep, the Parsley has been a bit of a tricky one – one moment is bright green and bushy tailed, the next it’s yellow and drooping. The Thyme and Basil have been a bit of a nightmare, the slugs seem to be extremely tempted by them and for reasons unknown, they’ve both took a turn for the worst. So much so that I’ve had to throw the Basil away but I’m attempting to revive the Thyme. And finally, the Chives are a relatively new addition so only time will tell with those.

Growing from bulbs: As a gardening newbie, I’m pretty impressed with the fact that my Hosta and Purple Iris are actually growing! The Purple Iris has been growing for a while, but the Hosta has suddenly appeared out of nowhere and I’m so pleased as it’s the one plant I really hoped would grow and I was getting rather worried it wasn’t going to happen.

Drainage and positioning is key: Over the last few months I think I’ve faffed around with the garden even more than I have done with the house! I’ve replanted various plants many times, into bigger or smaller pots, added crushed up slate from our front drive (the slate is soon to be in the back garden anyway!) to the bottom of pots and drilled holes in other pots to create better drainage so the plants don’t get too soggy after all the rain we’ve been having. I’ve moved plants from the shadier side of the decking to the sunnier side and back again. Let’s just say there’s been a lot of experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t!

On my garden wish list: My dreams of having a little Balinese jungle decking area are still far off at the moment and mostly because I just don’t have enough plants so there’s quite a few on my wish list that I want to pick up. Top of my list are; a Fern, Bamboo, a Banana plant, a range of grasses and a Strawberry plant or two (for obvious reasons, who doesn’t love strawberries!).

If you have any gardening tips for a novice gardener like me then I’d love to hear them!

P.s. I was supposed to be putting up part two of my 5 days in The Forest Of Dean but I’m having a few issues with my memory card at the moment so hopefully you don’t mind this post instead!